One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Big Stone Gap should be looked at to estimate when to plant echinacea.

Planting Calendar for Echinacea

Frost tolerance for echinacea:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Echinacea do ok in moderate cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Big Stone Gap is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant echinacea and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your echinacea may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your echinacea indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Big Stone Gap the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Big Stone Gap and it is different every year. Half of the time in Big Stone Gap you get a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your echinacea in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Big Stone Gap

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Big Stone Gap

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Big Stone Gap.